The term "cult movie" has practically lost all currency these days, as the phrase seems to be applied randomly to mainstream behemoths like The Matrix as to the Pink Flamingos of this world. ("Cult" implies some kind of worship, and we can no longer assume that mass devotion on the Star Wars level is something anyone can be proud of.) But one film that really deserves a bit of attention is the now-impossible-to-see feature spin-off from The Magic Roundabout, Dougal and the Blue Cat.

Kobal

Like the original TV series, Dougal and the Blue Cat was in fact made in France (and French) by animator Serge Danot. (Danot's Dougal was called Pollux, with Zébulon the jack-in-the-box, Ambroise the snail, Azalée the cow, and so on.) Eric Thompson, as he had done for Danot's Le Manège Enchanté, wrote his own English dialogue and did all the voices - except for one character, the unutterably spooky Madame Blue, for whom Fenella Fielding's plummy tones were called in.

Kobal

I went to see Dougal and the Blue Cat as a child - presumably when it was first released in the UK in 1972 - and it remains one of my formative cinematic experiences. Even though I've since seen everything from Halloween to Psycho, I still think of it as one of the creepiest films ever made. (Presumably parents and guardians of the era were left unsuspecting by the wholesome fun of the teatime TV series, and the U certificate granted by the BBFC.)

Having just re-watched it, 36 years later, it doesn't carry quite the same charge. But I don't think I'd take a little kid to see it now, at least not until they were old enough to deal with some scary nightmare scenes, and the sibilant, insinuating figure of Buxton the Blue Cat himself.

Kobal

Would anyone make a spin-off film like this now? The listings tell us Danot actually made it in 1970, and there's one late scene where Dougal and Buxton land on the moon, and Dougal makes a gag referencing Neil Armstrong's "one small step" speech. So it's topical at the very least; moreover, Thompson gets in mentions of Nato, the UN Security Council, British Rail, and more besides. (That was always one of The Magic Roundabout's selling points; it was one of the first cartoons to put in jokes to keep the grown-ups amused.)

Kobal

The plot is fairly obviously borrowed from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie from 1968, with a blue-hued conspiracy to take over the universe and eliminate all other colours. But I don't think even the Beatles would have come up with a scene like the one where Dougal, his fur dyed blue, is tortured by being locked up in a cave filled with sugar which he can't eat.

Kobal

The film's connections with Stanley Kubrick also make for an bizarre little sideshow: not only is there a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference in there, but Buxton is made to sound, in Thompson's voiceover, exactly like Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange. Moreover, it appears that the film's title was used as the cover for whenever the Scala cinema in London illicitly screened A Clockwork Orange, before it was unbanned after Kubrick's death. Warner Bros sued the Scala and it was forced to close down as a result in 1993.

Can we have Dougal and the Blue Cat back? The last time it was certified for video release was in 1999, and Second Sight, a highly respectable DVD label, appear to have the rights. You know what to do, people ...